12 year old cat + Surgery

Hi there! I recently gained ownership of my 12 year old female cat from my parents. (I grew up with her. She was born when I was 6.)

Unfortunately, my parents didn't believe in vets, so she went without even a check up for 12 years, and is not spayed.

Due to this, she has a hormonal imbalance and swollen mammary glands.

It became painful today, so I took her to the vet for the first time.

He gave her an antibiotic shot and recommended spaying her and giving her a full mastectomy at the same time.

He says that if she has a tumor there, it's currently benign and not currently a risk but could be at any time.

I'm worried, she's rather old, but she's energetic. (Except today, she's sore.)

Would this be too much trauma for her? I don't want to lose her but I want to make up for those 12 years.

I'm rather worried about the cost too.

Any advice would be appreciated. 

thanks!


(A picture of my precious girl<3)

I don't have any experience with surgery in older cats, but she looks so sweet! That little black heart marking is so priceless.

Did the vet discuss the risks of the surgery? Good on you for getting her to the vet!

pinkdagger said:

 
I don't have any experience with surgery in older cats, but she looks so sweet! That little black heart marking is so priceless.

Did the vet discuss the risks of the surgery? Good on you for getting her to the vet!

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Thank you! She's a darling.

He was more concerned about the risks of not having the surgery. He said that if it didn't happen, she'd likely get breast cancer. Right now the "Growths" are only one one side of her.

Hm, I would think as long as she's healthy, she could handle a surgery fine - however, I'm not familiar with the aftercare of a mastectomy. Some quick Googling (and even a short YouTube video of a feline mastectomy!) suggests the spay will be the harder of the two procedures, since it's actually internal, but if she's calm and you can keep her from moving too much after surgery, I don't see any reason why a healthy cat wouldn't be alright. It's not uncommon for older cats who end up rescued to be spayed or neutered later in life, and given how long cats tend to live these days, 12 isn't all that old either!

Did the vet do bloodwork as well? This is a good age to have a geriatric blood profile done, and it'll ensure she's a good candidate for surgery too. If there's anything wonky about her bloodwork, that should be addressed before anesthetizing.

pinkdagger said:

 
Hm, I would think as long as she's healthy, she could handle a surgery fine - however, I'm not familiar with the aftercare of a mastectomy. Some quick Googling (and even a short YouTube video of a feline mastectomy!) suggests the spay will be the harder of the two procedures, since it's actually internal, but if she's calm and you can keep her from moving too much after surgery, I don't see any reason why a healthy cat wouldn't be alright. It's not uncommon for older cats who end up rescued to be spayed or neutered later in life, and given how long cats tend to live these days, 12 isn't all that old either!

Did the vet do bloodwork as well? This is a good age to have a geriatric blood profile done, and it'll ensure she's a good candidate for surgery too. If there's anything wonky about her bloodwork, that should be addressed before anesthetizing.

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Thanks! I'd be able to do that no problem. I have quite the break between my spring and summer classes.

Not yet. He gave her an antibiotic today, and he wants to wait a week to see how she reacts to it, afterwards he plans to do blood work.

Update on my cat:

So, she got her blood work and Xrays done on the 12th. Everything came  out clean so they went ahead and did surgery.

The surgery went well, and she came home a lot less bloated.

The vet found a few more masses which he removed, and also some bad lymph nodes, all of which he sent off for testing.

We went to get the stitches out on the 25th, and that's when we got the results.

Turns out, all the masses were cancerous.

Since the cancer spread to the lymph nodes, we talked about Chemotherapy, just in case the cancer wasn't all removed by the surgery.

Anyways, we got home, and the first thing my dumb cat does is find a way to rip her chest open x_____x

We had to rush back to the vet and get her stapled shut again.

She gets the staples out on the 9th.

She seems to be doing well, though. She's much more energetic. She is playing again. I'm really happy for her.

I do plan on going through with the chemotherapy. I feel like it would be best for her. Just in case.

Wishing you and your cat the best.

Yikes   how did she manage that? Also, couldn't your vet have used 'dissolvable' (I'm not sure what they're called) stitches? Then you wouldn't have to get them taken out, theyd 'dissolve' . And I'm glad to hear that the surgery went well